Customer Reviews

The Return Of The Soldier

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

West's best-known and best novel runs barely longer than a longish short story, yet it is so packed with detail, characterization and incident that it has all the depth of a much longer book while keeping its scope limited to the confines of a country home in rural England. The reader finishes the book (probably after one sitting) feeling as if he/she knows the four major characters intimately, a testament to West's deft, succint, perfectly molded prose. There's not a false note, a misplaced line, a hollow emotion to be found here--critical, since this is a novel nearly exploding with suppressed emotion. One feels deeply--and equally--for the wounded, amnesiac soldier; his distraught young wife; his confused but optimistic ex-girlfirend; and his cousin, the narrator, who harbors her own unrequited love for the man. It is exceedingly rare that any work of art achieves perfection, but "Return of the Soldier" does. Despite its spareness and its limited focus, it is profound in its examination of the human heart. A must read.

THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER, published in 1918, may be the most carefully conceived novel I've ever read, and I've read a fair amount of exquisitely executed fiction. Told from the first person perspective of a spinster whose entire life revolves around her cousin, his life and country mansion, it is the story of an English gentleman who goes off to World War I only to be returned not in a body bag or physically injured but with a severe case of amnesia. He does not recognize his pretty, socially correct wife; he has retreated to a hidden youthful romance with a poor woman. The woman, also married now, comes forth in the interest of helping him. The balance of the plot hangs in the implications of recovery. The balance of the full experience of the novel is to watch characters change or not change their class prejudices and worldview in light of their experiences on this country estate. Though only 90 pages long, much is packed into this book, much that is analogous to the English national experience as it moved from the Victorian era into the 20th century.

The critical introduction, which should be read as an afterward so as not to rob you of the surprises in the novel, does a good job of reviewing the analogies between the tightly closed world of the country estate and the national experience. There is much more to be mined from this novel, including a window on the then new science of psychoanalysis and how it was understood. For me, the narration was a particular revelation. At first I thought the voice a bit melodramatic in a 19th century way, but it became clear that the tone was all part of the author's plan, and that it changed as the narrator's vision changed. The specter of spinsterhood hangs thick in the air, itself a comment on the social condition of the era. Here is the perfect selfless, lonely narrator who knows everything about the lives in her tiny circle. The woman who would be ignored becomes the ideal articulator of how England at home received the war.

The Return of the Soldier is a very small book, less than 100 pages, set during the first World War, that will stay with you for a long, long time. West writes about the relationship of three very different women, a wife, spinster cousin and old love, to each other and to the soldier sent home from the front with amnesia. This story is beautifully written and explores many themes, including classism, elitism, true love and hate. Each character is fully developed, each setting, vivid and though there is not a spare word in this book, it says so much. A book that should be read and discussed by everyone.

Why aren't people reading this book? For a book written 80 years ago, you would think that Rebecca West had written this about a page of today's history. The time -- World War I -- is only a backdrop for West's look at how people respond to change. This is the best twist on an amnesia theme ever written, and its distaff point of view is a particularly original spin on a war story. At under 100 pages, you feel as though you have read 'War and Peace' by the end -- and, I might add, gotten more out of it! If West were alive today, she would be on Oprah.

This short novel asks the same question as the film The Matrix poses: is it better to be happy or to know the truth? The question is even more complex in this novel since happiness is not aligned with beauty or wealth as it is in The Matrix.

The novel reminds me very much of the 1913 novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton--I wonder if West read that book. Both books contrast middle-class and upper-class life, and although both clearly see the superior beauty and elegance wealth brings, both novels also depict the snobbery, isolation, and selfishness that can come with social status. Oppenheim's book is more concerned with social class than with differences in wealth--new money and old money are contrasted. West's book is more subtle and complex--the complex situation of the returned soldier with amnesia forces the characters to define, rank, and value the relative merits of love, happiness, life, truth, and social position.

(It is fascinating to juxtapose this novel as representing English country life in WWI with the Barchester novels of Angela Thirkell, and with the WWII novel of Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day. The social burden of class in England comes across strongly. Another interesting juxtaposition is with Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway--which also deals with a mentally ill soldier returning from WWI.)

This book poses a true moral dilemma--there is no possible solution that can be happy ever after. This book should make you rethink the choices in your life and inspire you to greater self-knowledge.

This relatively unknown work, deceptively short, operates on many different levels and works on all of them. In a brief 87 pages one sees the class divisions in England during World War I, the impact of the Industrial Reolution on the countryside, a conflict between love and duty, family expectations and one's own desires, a frightening picture of amnesia, the pain of unrequited love and the joy of mutual love, a marriage without a soul--I could go on and on. I read it once just because I couldn't wait to see what happened, and then again slowly to enjoy the language, the beautiful descriptions of nature, and to find the hints the author sows from page one on that this beautiful world that these people have created for themselves is not what it appears to be.

The Return of the Soldier is hailed by critics as one of the first books by a woman about the tragedy of the Great War. In this slim volume West expresses the horror of trench warfare by giving a glimpse into the life of a shell-shocked soldier suffering from amnesia. He cannot remember his wife, Kitty, and he thinks himself to be fifteen years younger and yearns for the sweetheart of his youth. Narrated by his sister, Jenny The Return of the Soldier ends with the heartbreaking realization that with a cure to his amnesia the soldier Charles will be sent back to the front lines. Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful book. I had to read it for class, but I absolutely loved it. I read it in a day and as soon as I finished, I wanted to re-read it. It was heartbreaking and wonderfully written.

Rebecca West (nee Cicely Isabel Fairfield 1892-1983) began her distinguished career in the second decade of the 20th Century, a period of exciting international literary contributions. The publication of the British writer's first novel, The Return of the Soldier (1919), established her immediately as one of a group of very talented women authors. The short, modernist novel is filled with indications of West's brilliance and clear insight that make the reader sit up and take notice while reading the simple and direct narrative.

The story involves a shell-shocked soldier sent home from combat in the trenches of France during World War I. He is unfit to continue his mission because of retrograde amnesia that causes him to believe he is living in an earlier period of his life, long before his army service. Returning home to England, he tries to take up his life as it was before even though people who are important to him have aged 15 years. He feels as young as he did in those days and receives support during his delusion of youth by his current wife and his former lover.

The structure and psychological content of this novel remind me of Virginia Woolf's early work, The Voyage Out. I enjoyed the surprising, illuminating flashes of insight of the characters that made me realize the depth of talent shown right out of the literary gate of this young, 21 year old writer. It is a bit long on descriptions of flora even though the environment is important in the novel. The content of the story is relevant today due to the newer diagnosis of shell-shock, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder applied to soldiers in increasing numbers.

I pushed the buttons on my Kindle and went to the Kindle Store to buy her second novel, The Judge. I am looking forward to reading the complete work of Rebecca West (fiction and non-fiction), now considered a leading intellectual woman of the 20th Century.

Rebecca West's short novel about the reception of a "shell-shocked" soldier, by his wife and cousin back to his English countryside is a worthy read for several reasons. None of them, however, are related very much to the plot - the story of the soldier's return, his unusual condition and all it entails comprises - is very simple, too simple maybe. This is accentuated by the neat ending, too neat in it's unwrapping, though touching in the last moments.

I particularly enjoyed reading West's insightful descriptions of her characters. Sections which comprise some of the novella's most beautiful prose are the wealthier ladies' (Chris's(the soldier) wife and cousin) trepidation at the lower-class Margaret, from first meeting, to the details sparkled around. As well, the description of Margaret sitting over a sleeping Chris was poignant. Other scenes that come to mind are those that take place in the nursery, from Kitty's despondent stare at the outset, to Margaret's decision towards the end.

Naturally, at this point "The Return of the Soldier" seems dated; our encounters with "shell-shock" since World War I have been a great many and the details of the condition well-documented. Still, West's novella provides some well-written description of class-tension, character and insight to the mood of the time (just around the close of WWI). Though not a page-turner, "Return of the Soldier" was sound enough in it's composition to keep ahold of me for ninety pages. As a quick read, it is recommended. Had it been longer, I would be hesitant.